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This review will be on the 8154 Lego Brick Street Customs. I got this set as a really good deal for the price. I was going to use it for parts set, but.. It has cars! I just had to put them together with the stickers to see what it looks like. This box was OPEN when I bought it, but all the pieces are here.
Set Name: 8154 Lego Brick Street Customs
Theme: Racers
Released: 2008
Pieces: 1021
Price: $85.99/63.45euro/59.55pounds
Wanna see some pictures? Let's start with the normal box arts and manuals!
8154 Box Front
Yes, that's really 1021 pieces for less than $70. (Click on pic for larger photo)
8154 Box Rear
8 cars! 3 Buildings! And a whole lot of extra car parts.(Click on pic for larger photo)
8154 Instruction Book
Two books. Easy reading. Everything is big and easy to read.(Click on pic for larger photo)
8154 Parts Pages
All 1000+ parts.(Click on pic for larger photo)
8154 Parts Bags
A whole lot of bags. A total of 10+ two plates. Yes, it says bag 6 is the highest but there are multiple bags with the same number.(Click on pic for larger photo)
8154 Two Sticker sheets
Wow. There are stickers galor! To make each car different, there are many stickers to use. My sticker sheet wasn't complete. It was missing a sticker and while in the box the sheet was bent. Needless to say, some stickers when applied are peeling off. Kinda sad about that. Also, get help if you have poor hand-eye cordination. Some stickers fit exactly in the spot it belongs and are pretty small. Like 1x1 stud small. (Click on pic for larger photo)
The Build
There is many cars and buildings to build. To keep things clean, I'm doing a simple build contact sheet. The order of the pictures are the order of the build from the book. So if you notice a car by itself, it's because that's how it was in the instructions.
The cars (most of them)
The first 6 cars. The green van is cool. I liked it. Seems like something a VW would make. The nose on the yellow sports car is interesting. Reminds me of a Dodge. You'll get to see a better view in some dioramas later in this review. The classic car is nice as you get the custom radiator and the blue sports car here at the bottom has a front spoiler.
TRUCK AND TRAILER PICS
I found it interesting that none of the cars, including the truck used clear/smoked bricks for windows. This truck uses a solid piece of black brick. I also like those white pieces that are used in the flatbed that has the little lip on the end. Looks very clean. It's the same part they use for the lifts and car stands.
The SPEED Shop
The SPEED Shop. Nothing fancy. Gives you a showroom to park a car at an angle to see out the front windows. And tires and aftermarket car parts to be shown out of the other window.
The "lonely car"
I guess this was built in this step so you would use the car as a display model for one of the stores. Lots of decales for this car. Look closely and you can see a "stickered" hoodscoop.
Fuel4 Speed store
I guess you can consider this the local gas station. The pumps have fuel lines and the store has a tire display, fire extinguisher, and even a Soda Machine.
BCS Workshop
Now what car mod set would be complete without the workshop. The sidewall (get it? sidewall? lol) swings open so you can get to the extra tires mounted on the wall. The car lift has a lever that can move the lift up and down for some serious car work. They were even so kind to give you the air lines for working on your car.
Final Photos
Top view. Of course you can set this up anyway you want.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Front view.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Back view.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Front view of the cars.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Front view of the cars.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Rear view of the cars.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Rear view of the cars.(Click on pic for larger photo)
Features
With so many cars, they only gave you a few aftermarket pieces to modify them. But the set does work well. Store doors that open. Hey. If you think about it, the human that would fit the height of the door would be too tall to fit into the cars. They do give alot of tires. Speaking of tires, this set has at least three different sizes. The classic car, has skinny front tires and large slicks for the rear. And the rest of the cars all have low profile tires. Some tires have writing on them, but yet, some don't.
Issues
Besides having this scale be a bit off, meaning its not for minifigs, it would seem the stores are made for the minifigs or larger. Yet none of the cars could fit one. Also, while all the cars are to scale, they would be a little "off" scale when you have them lined up. Example would be that the Truck should be bigger, yet it has the same size tires as the cars. And some of the sport cars doesn't look like it could fit the same person that would fit into the truck. But if you squint... all looks fine and very much playable.
Only other thing that bothered me was, for a set that required heavly on the stickers to give a realistic feel, they should've found a way to pack it into the box so it wouldn't get damaged.
My rating:
Playability: 4 out of 5. It's cars. You push it, it rolls. And they give you enough stores to work your imagination.
Design: 3 out of 5. Everybody who saw the cars thought they were neat. But the scale just didn't always match.
Build experience: 2 out of 5. Everything was easy to put together. But get someone to help you with the stickers if you're bad at putting them on.
Overall: 3.5 of 5. Buy it if you like the series. Price per pieces are good. Now, you can get a set for about $70. That's less than the "normal" .10cents a piece by a lot.
Edited by WhiteFang, 23 May 2009 - 07:04 PM.
Indexed
) Great review, thanks for sharing.
